November 2012 Briefing - Pain Management

Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Pain Management for November 2012. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.

Worse Outcomes for Total Joint Arthroplasty in RA Versus OA

FRIDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at higher risk of dislocation and infection following total joint arthroplasty compared to patients with osteoarthritis (OA), according to a review published in the December issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The 2010 Medicare elimination of consultation payments (mainly billed by specialists) led to a net increase in spending on physician office visits, according to a study published online Nov. 26 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The majority of those who voted for President Obama in the 2012 election favor implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while those who voted for Republican officeholders are likely to oppose parts or all of the implementation of the ACA; both sides oppose cuts to Medicare as a means to balance the budget, according to an analysis of newly released polls published as a Special Report online Nov. 28 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Implementation of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) Medicaid expansion will likely result in modest state costs by 2022, but will gain health care coverage for more than 20 million uninsured Americans, according to report published by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

TUESDAY, Nov. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Compared with other health professionals, in the last 15 years there has been considerably less growth in the earnings of physicians in the United States, according to a research letter published in the Nov. 28 issue the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TUESDAY, Nov. 27 (HealthDay News) -- There are increasing numbers of newly marketed drugs that have the potential to interact with grapefruit, all of which are metabolized by the cytochrome P450 3A4 enzyme (CYP3A4), according to a review published online Nov. 26 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Three rules have been proposed by the Obama administration to further facilitate implementation of the Affordable Care Act, according to a Nov. 20 press release from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

MONDAY, Nov. 19 (HealthDay News) -- An individual's personality can explain a substantial portion of their placebo analgesic response, according to a study published online Nov. 16 in Neuropsychopharmacology.

FRIDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- The presence of mental illness or job problems may make physicians more vulnerable to suicide than non-physicians, according to a study published online Nov. 5 in General Hospital Psychiatry.

FRIDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Secondary prophylaxis with diltiazem may offer cancer patients relief from capecitabine-induced chest pain and dyspnea and allow them to tolerate capecitabine treatment, according to a study published in the Dec. 1 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.

TUESDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Migraine headaches are associated with an increased incidence of deep white matter hyperintensities on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), according to research published in the Nov. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TUESDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Epidural corticosteroid injections offer a small but significant degree of short-term relief of leg pain and disability for patients with sciatica, but the long-term effects are even smaller and not significant, according to a review published online Nov. 13 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

MONDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Experimental pain studies on humans to evaluate the efficacy of analgesics show good correlation with efficacy in the clinic, suggesting that human models could be an effective tool in developing new analgesics, according to a review published online Oct. 19 in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

MONDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Social networking profiles may harm an applicant's chances of admission to medical school or a residency program, according to a study published online Nov. 8 in the Postgraduate Medical Journal.

FRIDAY, Nov. 9 (HealthDay News) -- No conclusions can be drawn with regard to the comparative efficacy of open, microscopic, and tubular discectomy surgical techniques to treat sciatica due to a herniated disc, according to the results of a systematic literature review published in the November issue of the European Spine Journal.

THURSDAY, Nov. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Increasing severity of degenerative disc disease (DDD) does not impact outcomes in total lumbar disc replacement (TDR), according to a study published in the November issue of the European Spine Journal.

MONDAY, Nov. 5 (HealthDay News) -- The management of pain outcomes for terminally ill cancer patients varies widely between inpatient palliative care centers and is affected by organizational factors such as human resources adequacy, according to a study published in the Nov. 15 issue of Cancer.

FRIDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with knee osteoarthritis, self-reported knee instability and fear of physical activity correlate with the likelihood of treatment response following a therapeutic exercise program, according to a study published in the November issue of Arthritis Care & Research.

FRIDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Adults with cerebral palsy may be able to reduce declines in muscle strength, improve function, and reduce cardiovascular and metabolic disease by avoiding sedentary behavior and engaging in physical activity, according to a study published online Oct. 23 in Obesity Reviews.

FRIDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Children who watch a video clip of their choice during induction of inhaled anesthesia are less anxious than children who receive traditional distraction methods, according to a study published in the November issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia.

THURSDAY, Nov. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Overall, oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) do not have an effect on C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to research published in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

THURSDAY, Nov. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Self-management of low back pain (LBP) has only small effects on pain and disability, according to the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the November issue of Arthritis Care & Research.

THURSDAY, Nov. 1 (HealthDay News) -- For patients undergoing bilateral total knee arthroplasty (BTKA), use of neuraxial anesthesia correlates with significantly lower rates of blood transfusions, according to research published in the November/December issue of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine.